Middlesex Sheriff: Koutoujian

Koutoujian wants to curb repeat offenders

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian describes himself as "just a kid from Waltham" but said it was in Lowell that he first developed an interest in law enforcement.

In 1988, while attending New England School of Law, Koutoujian interned in the Lowell District Attorney's office, where he later worked as a prosecutor.

"The role and responsibility of a prosecutor is to seek justice," said the 51-year-old Koutoujian. "I came to appreciate the importance of that role."

Elected to the state Legislature in 1996, Koutoujian represented the 10th Middlesex District until January 2011, when Gov. Deval Patrick appointed him to replace Sheriff James DiPaola.

In Koutoujian's first year in office, he instituted a policy requiring ethics and campaign finance training for employees, and one prohibiting staff from contributing to the sheriff's campaign.

Policies like these, he said, contribute to his ongoing effort to restore public confidence in the sheriff's office.

"People don't know what the Middlesex Sheriff's Office does for them, what it means in their everyday lives, and it's a passion of mine to bring that out," he said. "That's what's good about a campaign. It gives me the opportunity to tell people what we're doing in the office."

Koutoujian started new vocational training opportunities for inmates, including a Xerox print-shop program and one teaching custodial skills.

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He is working with Middlesex Community College to make it easier to earn an associate's degree while incarcerated.

"I see a window of opportunity that I have to fix what went wrong in their lives, so when they go back out, they won't come back in again," Koutoujian said.

It's part of a theory he calls "trickle-down corrections."

In trying to prevent recidivism, Koutoujian hopes to not only increase public safety and save taxpayers the costs of incarceration, but to pass those effects onto future generations.

He said the children of prisoners are more likely to end up committing crimes themselves.

"You know how I can see that?" he said. "I saw the same people in Lowell District Court during a recent visit that I prosecuted 20 years ago. The same people and their children. The same families are there. If I can break that cycle, I can save more than just that one individual."

Koutoujian lives in Waltham with his wife Elizabeth and their three children, Peter, Christian and Isabel.

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